Hand in hand, they explored the spirit world. Diving into the depths of rivers, they watched glittering schools of oblong-shaped fish circle around them. Korra showed Asami the diversity of the spirits that live in spirit water. Some were as big as airships, others were small polyps. Climbing mountains, they helped each other up cliffs and past vast rivers. Gasping from an exhilarating climb on a certain mountain top, they marveled at the vast, beautiful landscape around them.

Then, Asami spotted a pair of majestic dragon-phoenixes flying towards them from afar.

"That's amazing," Asami said with awe.

"Right on time," Korra said as she squinted. It was an old friend.

Their intimidating wingspans bat huge gusts of wind as they settled to greet Avatar Korra and Asami Sato on the mountain top. Korra placed a hand on her friend's lowered beak. She was still amazed at its size. It felt just like yesterday that she cradled it in her arms, feeling sorry for hurting its wing.

The dragon-phoenix and Korra exchanged a mental dialogue. Asami watched from the side. It amazed her that they could communicate spiritually, without a word.

"Now that I've showed you some of the different spirits, I thought I'd show you one of my favorites. This is a dragon-phoenix!" Korra gestured proudly.

"They're lovely," Asami said as she stroked the purring dragon's head. "I feel like there's not enough room in our encyclopedias for all these different spirits."

Suddenly, the dragon-phoenix surprised Asami from behind. It scooped her up onto its back. She desperately tried to steady herself high above the ground.

"You never mentioned anything about riding dragon-phoenixes," Asami said a little nervously as she tried to find a stable spot on the dragon about to take off.

"Trust me, it's a lot easier than piloting an airship, or even a satomobile," Korra said reassuringly as she climbed onto her dragon phoenix.

Asami's dragon-phoenix jolted up from the ground. She slightly slipped.

"Hold on!" Korra chuckled.

"At least those have controls. How do I control it?" Asami yelled.

"You don't! It's all in your mind."

Asami tried imagining how she wanted to maneuver the dragon-phoenix. It spoke back to her, without words. It worked intuitively.

Her dragon-phoenix soared around the mountain top in a circle and came back to where Korra's dragon-phoenix was hovering.

"Wow, you got it!" Korra exclaimed.

"I'm still getting the hang of it," Asami replied.

"Follow me!" Korra's dragon-phoenix zoomed past, whipping Asami with a face full of her own hair.

Tying up my hair would've been helpful today.

Asami chased her between valleys of mountains, dodging columns of rock and towering woody trees. The wind blowing through their hair was invigorating. They flew over a clearing of waterfalls, rivers, and a canopy of trees. A flock of eagle-falcons flew just a few feet from the side of Asami's dragon. One of them even smiled at her. They approached a round of mountains that formed a valley of water falls. Thick, misty fog shrouded the bottom of the waterfall. Up ahead, a colossal waterfall appeared through the mist - and they were flying towards it. It seemed to fall into an endless, cloudy abyss. They were the size of ants next to this giant stream of water. It was ten miles wide and indeterminably high.

Korra had an idea.

Her dragon-phoenix picked up speed as it charged towards the colossal waterfall. The roar of the waterfall intensified. It grew deafening. Asami watched, wide-eyed as she stopped her dragon-phoenix and hovered a distance away in the mist. Korra's dragon phoenix zipped straight through the colossal waterfall, its right wing slicing through the massive waterfall like a razor. For a single second, the roar stopped. One could finally hear the echo of the smaller, surrounding waterfalls. But after she cleared through, the roar resumed.

She flew through a misty cloud and appeared on the other side of the waterfall. Turning her dragon phoenix around, she spotted Asami's shocked face. She laughed while her dragon-phoenix flapped its wings in place.

Asami watched Korra hover on the other side the colossal waterfall and in front of the cloud, as if Korra was telling her to meet her there. Asami lowered herself closer to her flying companion's scaly, shimmery back. Challenge accepted.

The engineer examined the scales and fins before her. She found convenient pockets and grooves for her hands and feet to grip on tightly. Asami tested the pockets. Her hand slipped because of the misty conditions. She adjusted her grip. With resolve, she charged forward at full speed.

The roar of the water crescendoed. The clouds partially obscured her vision. The droplets of water grew larger and larger and fell harder and harder, like pebbles on her skin. She still flew faster and slightly higher. Water droplets pelted her skin. Her mind moved like a clock, timing her maneuver with precision. At just an arm's length from the edge of the waterfall, Asami tightening her grip and used her core to hold on. Her body pressed into her dragon's back.

She's flying faster than she needs to, Korra observed. A right wing cut doesn't need that much power. Korra's mind processed what happened next in slow motion-

Asami's dragon-phoenix flipped upside down in a swift, graceful rotation. Its wings then fully expanded like steel plates. Her dragon-phoenix cleanly sliced through the colossal waterfall, leaving only a few droplets on its wing. It zoomed through, exponentially faster than any sato-racer she had driven. A triumphant tone played in Asami's head. Once she was on the other side of the waterfall, she flew over Korra.

Their eyes met for a second.

An upside-down Asami playfully winked at her.

Korra was in total awe and shock; Asami could see the whites of her eyes and her dropped jaw. Korra's eyes followed her trajectory from the left to the right. A few residual water droplets from Asami's dragon landed on Korra's face.

Then, the raven-haired rider disappeared with a fwoop into an adjacent rolling cloud.

Korra blinked a few times, speechless.

A few seconds passed by...

Despite the deafening roars around her, it was strangely quiet.

An anxious thought popped into Korra's head: What if she crashed into the wall of rock behind the cloud?

Korra charged towards the cloud, but right before plunging in Asami and her dragon-phoenix appeared through the top of the cloud, soaring parallel to the adjacent wall of rock. Her dragon-phoenix had shot up at a right angle as it nearly collided against an adjacent wall of mountains. It snaked along the side of the mountain as if it were horizontal land. She flew like a rocket high above the valley of rocks and waterfalls. Her image shrunk into a dot in the heavenly blue sky. Droplets of water dotted Asami's eyelashes. Asami marveled at the altitude she was gaining.

Flaming flameos…! Korra thought as she watched from below.

I'm so flaming lucky she's mine! She pursued the shrinking image of Asami's dragon-phoenix in the sky. She followed its sparkling trail. Gradually, Asami's dragon-phoenix became visually clearer.

They looped around each other as they flew higher and higher. They flew parallel, staggered, head-to-tail, and, in the end, traced two halves of a heart. Exchanging smiles and "beat that" looks along the way, they soared the skies with unspoken synchronization.

Their dragon-phoenixes were huffing and puffing when they returned back to the mountain top.

They both agreed on how fun it was. As Asami wrung out her wet hair from diving in and out of the clouds, she remembered something.

"At first, I thought this was some sort of payback for making you learn how to drive," Asami said as she dismounted.

"Umm," Korra paused before continuing. "It might have been," she said mischieviously as she planted her feet on the ground.

Asami's expression flattened before she said, "Really?" Then, to her surprise, her dragon-phoenix stuck out its wing, and flapped a gust of air at the Avatar. Korra's wet hair messily fell all over her own face. Asami did not know that her connection to the dragon-phoenix was still in tact.

Korra slumped her shoulders.

"Oops, I'm so sorry!" Asami held up her hand to her mouth. But then Asami started laughing at the funny sight.

"Actually, the windblown look suits you," she said as she started holding her stomach from laughter.

Korra cleared her hair with a slightly angry pout. But, once she saw Asami laughing she melted. Through the serious city council meetings, endless nights of paperwork, and tough negotiations with politicians, It had been so long that she'd heard Asami laugh like a much younger version of herself.

So, Korra made her dragon-phoenix do the same to Asami.

Asami hastily fixed her hair, the hair that she had so expertly tamed each day of her life. Then, she reached for Korra as she said, "You, come here, you!"

Korra ran in the other direction like a schoolgirl on the playground. She ran around the dragon-phoenixes and hid behind one of them. "Hey, Korra, that's not fair!" Asami said, laughing, while circling around it. Then, it started to flap its wings and fly away.

"Hey!" Korra called out. Asami ran under the ascending dragon-phoenix towards Korra. Korra darted behind a large boulder. The dragon-phoenixes flew away, diamond-dusting the air with their sparkling trails.

The sparkles caught Asami's eye and she looked up. She stopped in her tracks and lifted her hand to let the sparkles drift into her palm. Some of them seemed to float midair.

Korra peeked from behind the boulder. Captivated with the picture of Asami in the rain of diamond dust, Korra slowly walked out to meet her.

Asami admired the dust in the palm of her hand, but when Korra appeared in her periphery Asami acted like she did not notice her.

Korra's heartbeat slowed. All she wanted to do now was kiss Asami on the cheek and lift her up from behind.

Asami waited until Korra got closer. Then, she hopped up and wrapped her legs around Korra's abdomen. Caught off guard, Korra fell backwards bringing Asami down with her.

"Oof!" Korra grunted as she hit the ground with the weight of Asami now sitting on her.

Asami's knees hit the ground hard, but she did not care. She was too busy smiling and laughing.

She opened her palm and blew a kiss at Korra, gently sending a cloud of diamond dust into her face.

Korra propped herself up with her elbows, blinking several times to get the dust out. Then, Asami leaned forward through the drifting dust. She stopped a few centimeters away from the Avatar's face. She was so close, Korra could see specks of sparkling dust on Asami's eyelashes.

"I got you," Asami said. She smiled, took Korra's face in her hands, and lovingly kissed her.

Diamonds drifted all around them.